Poor children could be sent to school on Saturdays to help them achieve as much as the rich, say Tories

Shadow schools secretary Michael Gove suggested poorer children could be sent to Saturday school

The Tories would allow children to go to school for 10 hours a day
and on Saturday mornings to help working parents and boost the
performance of poor pupils, it emerged today.

Shadow ministers
said that giving disadvantaged youngsters more time in the classroom
could help them catch up with more privileged peers.

Longer school days could also be popular with working parents who
struggle to fit 3pm school finishing times around their jobs, according
to Tory schools spokesman Michael Gove.

Mr Gove insisted it would be up to individual schools to decide to open longer, or at weekends.

But he said he had been impressed by a scheme in America where
youngsters from disadvantaged backgrounds go to school from 7.30am to
5pm.

'I believe that having children in school for longer, particularly
if they come from disadvantaged backgrounds can be a real help in
closing the attainment gap,' he said.

'But it's something that has to be negotiated; you need the willing
and enthusiastic support of the teachers because if children are going
to benefit then you want them to be in an environment where the people
who are teaching them are relishing this opportunity.'

He added: 'My hunch is that families would prefer there to be longer hours.

'My view is parents would love to have schools start earlier in some
circumstances and to be going on later in the afternoon, given the
reality of the working lives of many parents.'

Mr Gove said Saturday schools would give poorer youngsters access to
the kinds of opportunities wealthy middle-class parents routinely
arranged for their children, including lessons with private tutors and
specialist music tuition.

He also said longer days would help schools cover a rigorous and broad curriculum.

The
shadow minister hailed the Knowledge is Power Programme (KIPP) in the
US, a network of 82 schools in urban areas which operate an extended
school day to allow teachers to cover more ground.

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There are also Saturday morning classes, a summer school during the long holiday and homework every night.

Speaking
at the annual conference of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers
in Manchester, he said: 'Children who come from homes where parents
don't have the resources to provide additional stretch and cultural
experiences, there are benefits in having those children in the
learning environment, in school, for longer'

But he was greeted
with laughter from delegates when he said this would only work if it
had the 'enthusiastic support of teachers'.

The Mossbourne Academy in Hackney, east London, where students already attended school on Saturdays

He said later it was 'critical' that plans to open longer were led by schools, not by an incoming Tory government.

But
ATL general secretary, Dr Mary Bousted, said: 'The last thing we need
to be doing at the present time is increasing teachers' working hours.
Teachers already work the most unpaid overtime of any public sector
profession.

'If we want Saturday schools then we need more
teachers doing the extra hours not the same teachers working longer and
becoming exhausted.'

Saturday classes used to be common in
fee-paying schools but most are now thought to have phased them out
after managing to fit the entire curriculum into the standard school
week.

Top-performing Magdalen College School, in Oxford axed
Saturday lessons in 1998, and is believed to be the last independent
day school to have done so, although many boarding schools continue
with the practice.

Meanwhile Mr Gove's idea is likely to alarm those concerned about the erosion of family time.

Margaret
Morrissey, founder of the lobby group Parents Outloud, said: 'I am just
not sure whether taking away a child at weekends is actually going to
make them cleverer in the week.

'What we should be doing is supporting these children within the school week.'

Siobhan
Freegard, co-founder of Netmums, warned that the classes could be seen
as a 'badge of dishonour' or classes for 'thickos'.

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Poor children could be sent to school on Saturdays to help them achieve as much as the rich, say Tories